Hi,
I just want to tell my story about my Hair transplant journey that i'm on at the moment. I know how much other peoples stories on this great forum have helped me understand the process and the emotion involved. I can’t thank this forum and its contributors enough. Without it I seriously dont know if I would have had the courage and knowledge to actually go through with it.If this story helps just one person, then I will be thrilled.

Im a 44 year old male who lives in the UK and who has probably been losing his hair, albeit slowly since I was about 18/20 years old. When I got into my mid 30s I had to cut it shorter and shorter until just the last 3/4 years buzzed it down to a number 1 all over.
I have hated losing my hair and always looked in envy at all the people in the papers and TV who had had hair transplants but not knowing anybody personally that have had the proceedure, I just didn’t know which way to turn for help. With having a family, 2 kids, we’ve always had other things to spend the money on together, but this year I decided to bite the bullet and actually tell my wife that I really want this. Its really affected my confidence over the last 10 years I would say but I just haven’t had the guts to actually have a conversation about it. It was a big decision for me.

Ive been a watcher on this forum for a few years. I have to say Dazzters story was such an inspiration to me over the time i've been looking and he was mainly the reason I came to this decision.

I did my homework and contacted a few HT Clinics, here and abroad. More recently Super Smooth and the Heff’s stories about the HairPalace in Budapest made me look a little bit closer at them along with others. I contacted Sean (Super Smooth) for more info along with a couple of people who left telephone numbers on trust pilot about their procedures. They all came back to me and said the same thing. They couldn’t recommend them enough.
Having been for a few consultations in Manchester, I compared prices, quality, ideas and more importantly reviews and came to the conclusion that I would take the plunge and travel to Budapest. All the clinics basically said the same thing. I would need two HT’s over a couple of years to fully cover what I needed and the front hairline would be the starting point. Now price wasn’t the main factor because I could have got it cheaper in Turkey or even India but I won’t lie, it did have a sway along with the votes of confidence and budapest is a nice place to visit.

So basically, i signed up for the 6000 hair FUE, got the tickets, made my plans with them and flew out last week, 28th January. I was met at the airport as arranged by their driver and taken to what seemed like a brand new apartment. It was really nice. It was quite close to a shopping centre so I made sure I bought all the food I needed, frozen pizzas, water etc for the days ahead.

I was picked up again, as promised by the same driver at 8.00am in the morning and driver, along with a French customer to the blood clinic. I could have got this done in the UK but it had to be done three weeks in advance of the procedure and I didn’t have enough of a timescale and for £129 including an extra night, I didn’t think it was too bad. The rest of the day from 9.00am onwards was just sightseeing.

The day of the HT was a bit nervy at first, but the clinic and the staff were all lovely. Paperwork signed, money handed over, drugs taken and lunch ordered, I was taken for photographs, my hair shaved and then photos again.I was then lead into the operating room and lay, face down on a bed and had the injections on the back of my head. Again I won’t lie, they weren’t pleasant. Doctor Ljuba Zsolnai tried to numb the area with ice first just to take the sting away but you can feel the first few and there were lots. Once the head starts to numb you dont really feel the rest but on a pain scale I would say a 4/10. Once the injections were out of the way she got the motorised punch out and made quite a few incisions at a time and then the other two assistants came over and helped the doctor remove them. Then she would repeat the process over and over for the rest of the morning.
We had a good chat about the hairline and she kept making slight adjustments until we came to a decision on it with the marker.Lunch came, I chose a Hungarian two course meal, a few more pills and back to the room having made my choices for the movies.I sat up on the bed this time, a few more injections on the scalp, i knew what to expect this time with the pain, again not pleasant but not awful. This time she made most of the incisions for the grafts and then it was like clockwork. One technician primed the pen, or whatever the implement is that they put the hairs in with, passed it to the next, who handed it to the doctor. She hands it back to the first and a new pen is waiting, without her having to take her eyes of my head. It really was a well practised operation they had going on.
The first day over and I had about a half inch hairline which I hadn’t seen in about 15/20 years, very surreal. The only thing I would say about the clinic and it is only minor. It would be a great help if they could have the drivers drive you to and from the clinic. You don't look your best to say the least after the day you’ve had. I had a bloody strip across the front of my head and a big bandage on the back of my head. I walked from my apartment in the morning to the clinic in about 15 mins, believe me the journey back was a damn site faster!!!! Its was rush hour when I left and lots and lots of people looking at me. I know I wouldn’t be seeing them again but I am quite self conscious anyway, so it wasn’t great, but hey its not the worst thing in the world.

The next day was much of the same. Extraction in the morning and implanting in the afternoon. They filled in the space between the front and the mid region.The doctor sat me in her office when It was all over and I had got dressed and she explained everything that she had done, what I had to do over the coming days along with lots of information sheets. I asked questions like when should I be thinking about coming back for my 2nd op, did it go as well as she would have like etc, then back to the apartment, quick march!!!
The next day was the dreaded airport. The airport is lovely and again the driver picked me up exactly on time but its not the most pleasant experience being with lots of people who are constantly trying to work out what has happened to your head. I sat myself down in a corner and thanked god I booked a window seat in the last row of the plane back to Manchester.I have to say the treatment and professionalism I received from the Hairpalace was first class, better than expected. I just wait with baited breath for good results now. That will ultimately be the test of how good they actually are.

It now day 4 post op and things have settled down. I started to get some swelling on days 2 and 3 and now day 4 its almost gone, just a bit of redness under my eyes. Ive not had any pain in either the donor area or the recipient. I’ve started to get the little scabs on both areas but was told I can only start having a shower from Tuesday onwards. So I hope I look a little better afterwards.

The only slight issue I have, I seem to have a line around my head above the grafts to my mid area where I do have a few of my own hairs. The photos will probably make more sense than i’m making!!I dont know whether it is just showing up more because my recipient area is still red. There are hairs there in the line but they are very light in colour. They will maybe blend in this week and be nothing to worry about but I would just like a second opinion on it and how everything looks so far. Is everything going to plan?
Ive been spraying the saline solution every waking hour and i will be sending my photos to the Hairpalace on Wednesday for the one week check up so I will ask them as well.
I will try and post my progress as and when there is any and like I said earlier I hope this helps somebody who was in the same situation as me.

Hi grooster.
Welcome to the forum.
Nice write up on your hair loss journey. You received a good amount of hair, do you know the graft breakdown? The amount should make a nice improvement and frame your face to transform your appearance.
Thanks for sharing and I’ll look forward to following your progress.

Do you know, its one thing I never asked. I know I actually got 7042 hairs implanted in total, instead of the 6000 deal they advertise. They said a large proportion of my grafts had 3 or more hairs in so they needed more grafts. Does this make sense to you? Would this be correct.I’m sending my photos to them for the one week check in the next couple of days so i’ll ask for a graft breakdown and see if they keep records.
Thanks for the welcome by the way.

Yea its possible to have a higher hair count if you had a lot of 3 and 4 haired grafts to boost the numbers.
You got lucky, you have good donor density.
Let us know the graft count once the clinic responds.
Cheers Bm.

I’ve sent the 1 week photos off to the hairpalace today as they emailed and requested and I’ve asked for a breakdown of grafts. I’ve also asked them for their opinion of something I brought up earlier. I notice that I have a fine line between my native hair and the implanted hair. It may not be too noticeable on the photos but in real life it is quite noticeable at this early stage. I worry that in the future if I still keep my hair short I will always have this line.Does anybody know if this will fill in with time or is it a mistake. Am I worrying for no reason or should I be concerned?Your advice would really be a great help.

The graft count was 2295. They haven’t given me a breakdown. Thats makes an average of over 3 hairs per graft. Is this good or bad? Does it help with the density/coverage or does it mean I just get fewer grafts?

When the hair grows through and is the same length as the native hair then that line shouldn't be as noticeable. Only time will tell really. It looks worse as it's were the transplanted hair stops and the native hair starts. Whether it does show I'm not sure but shouldn't be a big issue to fix if it does.

Yeah, I have pointed this out to the clinic and they did get back to me to say pretty much the same thing. It just looks strange in the meantime. I just wish this new hair would either start to drop out early or it would grow to cover it up. I’ll just have to play the waiting game now.
Cheers

Yeah there is definitely a gap at the moment, but nothing too noticeable, thank god. I can disguise it a little. My hair, both donar and native hair is growing at such a fast rate at the moment that, it will feel bad when it eventually starts to shed. Not looking forward to that, I’ve got used too it in the last couple of weeks, but it is inevitable!!!

Well it’s now about 16 days post op so I thought I’d update my photos and put my 2 weeks images on. Not much has changed. It has thickened up and grown and I don’t think I’ve lost any yet, but it is inevitable. The implanted area healed within the first week, no scabs or itching but the donar is the worst. I’m getting some itching and it feels a little inflamed. Almost like there is a little rash under the hair. I’m just about controlling the urge to scratch the hell out of it and it’s probably worst at night when I’m lying on it. Im just hoping it dies down a little over the next few weeks.Looking forward to the point I can take a bit of a buzz cut and cut it all to the same length, my native hair has grown faster than the implanted and just looks a bit patchy.
I’m really happy with the results so far and I’ll be honest, if my hair grows back anything like it is now, I’d be more than happy, it’s such an improvement on what I had.
I’ll update the photos should anything interesting happen or on the 1 month mark.

Thanks for the update, it's awesome when we get people like you posting regular updates so we can follow the journey with them.....wish more would do this but I understand it's a private thing for a lot of folk.
Keep em coming dude.....the times gonna fly by and your new Barnet is just round the corner.
Don't get too disheartened when (if) the shedding happens as it's all part of the process and it will come back dude.

No problem, like I said in my first post, this forum and many of the stories / transformations helped me and gave me confidence to go ahead with the HT. I must have read nearly every story in the last 6 months on here, so I just hope somebody else like myself can have another insight into what it entails and the different stages you go through on the road to having hair again.